School Mental Health Specialist

Application Deadline: 15 August 2024

Department: Programs - Academic - High School

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: NYC Tri-State Area

Reporting To: Director, High School Program

Compensation: $76,000 - $106,000 / year

Description

The School Mental Health Specialist implements The Jed Foundation (JED)'s High School programs, supporting high schools in deep campus-wide school mental health transformation through a guided process of strategic assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Serving as the primary consultant and external face of JED for schools implementing JED's High School programming, this role collaborates with school leadership to improve their practices, procedures, and policies around mental health support and suicide prevention. The Jed Foundation's Comprehensive Approach for Mental Health Promotion provides trusted and evidence based practice recommendations for schools to build and enhance their school mental health and suicide prevention programs.

The Jed Foundation seeks individuals with experience and expertise in building, leading, and implementing school mental health programs in the PK-12 sector, specifically High Schools, and with the ability to support educators and school leaders in developing, growing, and sustaining school-linked mental health programming that supports student and staff well-being. The ideal candidate for the School Mental Health Specialist role is an experienced school mental health leader with expertise in related campus-level programs and practices, and who is familiar with systems change processes. This role serves as a consultant and advisor to school leaders partnering with JED and is skilled in relationship management, problem-identification and problem-solving, and resource development, while also providing guidance and technical assistance in school mental health.

This is a remote position for an individual located in the NYC Tri-State Area . The School Mental Health Specialist - High School should reside within an easy (approx. 60-90 min) commuting distance from NYC and an airport to facilitate transit to various regional schools nationwide. The School Mental Health Specialist l must have the ability and desire to travel to partner high school campuses, conferences, regional internal meetings.(up to 40% travel).

Key Responsibilities

Program Implementation and Technical Assistance Provision

• Manage a consulting portfolio of 30-40 high schools in various JED program phases and locations across the country, as assigned by JED leadership.
• Guide schools through the full cycle of JED's High School programs with an emphasis on collaboration through consultation.
• Leveraging school mental health expertise, provide direct technical assistance to schools on best practices in mental health practices, programming, and policies in the PK-12 sector.
• Analyze and synthesize data from a variety of sources to inform development of feedback reports, strategic plans, and other support resources for school partners, and help partners to draw meaningful conclusions from data.
• Lead collaboration with school personnel to develop a data-informed strategic plan to improve their practices, procedures, and policies around school mental health support and suicide prevention, including the related fields encompassing student support.
• Support school personnel and leadership in their efforts to leverage community engagement throughout various phases of JED's PK-12 programs.
• Assist in the curation and development of mental health support and suicide prevention activities, materials, presentations, and other related resources for school professional development, community meetings, etc.
• Recommend evidence-based strategies and creative solutions to meet individual school challenges throughout multi-year project execution.
• Leverage expertise to assist with other school mental health and related consulting projects, as assigned.
• Collaborate with other internal teams to develop high quality materials, activities, and other collateral to support program delivery .
  
  

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Motivate and advise schools in completion of baseline assessment protocols, surveys, and other program activities and data collection methods.
• Lead school partners through a continuous evaluation process to review progress and measure effectiveness.
• Utilize Salesforce and comply with other JED procedures to record and track program metrics for quality assurance and evaluation.
• Regularly update strategic plans to include measurable progress made on JED assigned action items.
  
  

Project Management

• Build and maintain positive and effective working relationships with school leaders to ensure success throughout the duration of program engagement.
• Monitor school progress throughout the engagement lifecycle.
• Oversee project timelines and ensure schools are meeting program milestones in a timely manner.
• Assist schools with internal project management related to accomplishing goals in the implementation phase of the JED High School program.
  
  

Content Expertise

• Serve as content expert regarding best practice in high school policies, procedures and practices related to JED's comprehensive approach core domains.
• Act as both an advisor and subject matter expert during all phases of the JED High School program.
• Maintain current knowledge about best practices related to unique school types including charter and public day schools, boarding schools, alternative schools, regional schools, etc.
• Facilitate community workshops surrounding specific topics affecting high schools to provide guidance, JED stances, and facilitated communication between schools.
• Collaborate with leadership to update programmatic materials such as assessment tools, measurement tools, deliverables, and implementation tools to align with best practices.
  
  

And other duties, as assigned, by JED leadership related to High School programming and projects.

Skills Knowledge And Expertise

• Minimum of master's level training in education, educational leadership, counseling, psychology, social work, or related field required; LPC, MSW, MPH, MED, and early to mid-career PhD degree-holders are encouraged to apply.
• At least 7 years professional experience working within, or in direct partnership with, PK-12 education systems, or PK-12 educational leadership, required, with direct experience in high school leadership.
• Strong technical knowledge of school based mental health, Social Emotional Learning, suicide prevention, and substance use prevention, required.
• Experience working with specialized school types including but not limited to boarding schools, alternative schools, etc.
• Deep knowledge of school systems, including data, daily operations, and the current educational landscape, especially for education and student support leaders, required.
• Self-driven and results-oriented with a positive outlook and strong problem-solving skills.
• Strong research, analytical, and critical thinking abilities, and the ability to analyze and apply data to draw meaningful conclusions.
• Experience building and managing high school mental health programs and collaborating with school leaders.
• Experience in research and evaluation methodology, strongly preferred.
  
  

Additional Qualifications

• Excellent verbal communication.
• Excellent written communication with experience in drafting report-style formats, with attention to detail.
• Excellent presentation skills with experience and comfort presenting to large groups, including senior leadership.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship management skills, including comfort with establishing new partnerships, identifying new business opportunities, and a history of maintaining high partner engagement.
• Experience working with Salesforce or other CRM systems strongly preferred.
• Ability to travel to high school campuses, conferences, and other JED engagements nationwide, as well as JED headquarters in NYC regularly (40% travel).
  
  

Pay Ranges / Location / Travel Information

Pay Ranges

The range listed on this job posting is based on JED's compensation posting ranges. Salaries may be higher or lower depending on experience and geographic location.

Location/Travel Information:

Please note that this position is largely remote but will require retreat/business meetings at JED's central office in NYC or other locations as designated by JED leadership. Additional travel may be required.